All of Manchester’s care home residents have now received first vaccine dose

All residents of Manchester’s care homes have received at least one dose of their Covid-19 vaccination.

Among the first people to be prioritised for the vaccine rollout, the residents of the city’s 56 care homes for older people have now all received at least their first dose of the vaccine. 

Carolyn Ball, general manager of Belong Morris Feinmann Care Village in Didsbury, said: “We are absolutely delighted that our residents have had this opportunity to receive the Covid-19 vaccine. This is the additional protection we have long been waiting for and it’s great to be starting the new year knowing that our residents are at reduced risk.

“The commitment of the NHS in Manchester to rolling the programme out promptly, and the team from gtd healthcare delivering it in our care setting in spite of the complex logistics, is really impressive. We’re so grateful as their well-organised approach meant our residents and colleagues were amongst the first in the UK to receive the vaccine.”

Manchester City Council’s executive member for adult health and wellbeing, Councillor Bev Craig said she was ‘so proud’ of the work gone into protection the most vulnerable people in the region. 

She added: “We are already also seeing a really encouraging take up of the vaccine amongst care home staff, we cannot stress how important this is and we’d urge any staff member who is still unsure to talk to their colleagues who have already had it so they can see how easy and safe the process has been.

“They can book an appointment through their home managers and we really want to encourage them to take this opportunity as soon as possible.”

Across the country, 6.5 million people have been vaccinated so far with around 80% over over 80s in England. 

Manchester’s care home residents can expect their second jab (if they haven’t already received it) no later than 12 weeks after their initial dose under the current scheduling.

This comes after the government changed the course of the rollout from two weeks after the first dose to six weeks to vaccinate more vulnerable people.

Chief medical officer, Chris Whitty described the change as ‘simple maths’ adding: “…if a vaccine is more than 50% effective, if you double the number of people who are vaccinated over this very risky period when there is a lot of virus circulating, you are overall going to get some substantial benefit.”

He said: “I think most people would agree that the risk that was identified was a relatively much smaller risk than the risk of not having people vaccinated, which essentially was the alternative.”